Copyright 2005 Brad EdenIf you have a website then you already know the importance
of traffic. Traffic is to Internet marketing as location is
to real estate. It's the only thing that really matters. If
you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you
will not make any sales.
Usually the owner or designer of the website is the person
designated to drive traffic to the site. The chief
ingredient in generating traffic is the search engine. Of
coarse, you can use advertising, but it's going to cost
you. Using the search engines to generate targeted
(interested in your product) traffic is the least expensive
method known.
Unfortunately, many website owners do not understand the
importance of search engine visibility, which leads to
traffic. They place more importance on producing a "pretty"
website. Not that this is bad, but it is really secondary
to search engine placement. Hopefully, the following list
of common mistakes, made by many website owners, will help
you generate more targeted traffic to your site...after
all, isn't that what you want.
1. Not using keywords effectively.
This is probably one of the most critical area of site
design. Choose the right keywords and potential customers
will find your site. Use the wrong ones and your site will
see little, if any, traffic.
2. Repeating the same keywords.
When you use the same keywords over and over again (called
keyword stacking) the search engines may downgrade (or
skip) the page or site.
3. Robbing pages from other websites.
How many times have you heard or read that "this is the
Internet and it's ok" to steal icons and text from websites
to use on your site. Don't do it. Its one thing to learn
from others who have been there and another to outright
copy their work. The search engines are very smart and
usually detect page duplication. They may even prevent you
from ever being listed by them.
4. Using keywords that are not related to your website.
Many unethical website owners try to gain search engine
visibility by using keywords that have nothing at all to do
with their website. They place unrelated keywords in a page
(such as "sex", the name of a known celebrity, the hot
search topic of the day, etc.) inside a meta tag for a
page. The keyword doesn't have anything to do with the page
topic. However, since the keyword is popular, they think
this will boost their visibility. This technique is
considered spam by the search engines and may cause the
page (or sometimes the whole site) to be removed from the
search engine listing.
5. Keyword stuffing.
Somewhat like keyword stacking listed above, this means to
assign multiple keywords to the description of a graphic or
layer that appears on your website by using the "alt=" HTML
parameter. If the search engines find that this text does
not really describe the graphic or layer it will be
considered spam.
6. Relying on hidden text.
You might be inclined to think that if you cannot see it,
it doesn't hurt. Wrong.... Do not try to hide your keywords
or keyword phrases by making them invisible. For example,
some unethical designers my set the keywords to the same
color as the background of the web page; thereby, making it
invisible.
7. Relying on tiny text.
This is another version of the item above (relying on
hidden text). Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword
phrases by making them tiny. Setting the text size of the
keywords so small that it can barely be seen does this.
8. Assuming all search engines are the same.
Many people assume that each search engine plays by the
same rules. This is not so. Each has their own rule base
and is subject to change anytime they so desire. Make it a
point to learn what each major search engine requires for
high visibility.
9. Using free web hosting.
Do not use free web hosting if you are really serious about
increasing site traffic via search engine visibility. Many
times the search engines will eliminate content from these
free hosts.
10. Forgetting to check for missing web page elements.
Make sure to check every page in your website for
completeness, like missing links, graphics, etc. There are
sites on the web that will do this for free.
This is just a few of the methods and techniques that you
should avoid. Do not give in to the temptation that these
methods will work for you. They will do more harm than good
for your website.
Not only will you spend weeks of wasted effort, you may
have your site banned from the search engines forever.
Invest a little time to learn the proper techniques for
increasing search engine visibility and your net traffic
will increase.
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Brad Eden is a Entrepreneurial Sciences expert with 14
years of industry experience in real estate, marketing
and technical communication. He currently consults with IBM
in CA. Brad owns & operates a free traffic resource for
entrepreneurs. http://americanfreetraffic.com//home.html
